Eurovision off-key for struggling nations

Helena Smith, Athens

ONE after another they are calling in sick. First, Portugal and Poland and now, short of an economic miracle, Cyprus and Greece.

For an event meant to unify Europe, next year's Eurovision song contest is starting to look unusually thin on the ground.

All four countries announced this week, or intimated strongly, that they would not take part. With the exception of Poland, each cited the debt crisis.

''It's a great shame, very sad,'' said the Greek singer Nana Mouskouri, who was discovered when she performed A Force de Prier, Luxembourg's entry in 1963.

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''I couldn't perform for Greece back then as we didn't have television … I know the world progresses,'' she said, ''but the whole thing has just got so big, so expensive.''

That is why the competition associated with kitsch costumes and iffy music has had to take a back seat for recession-hit nations.

''Public television ought not to participate in this year's Eurovision contest in correspondence with overwhelming public sentiment,'' said a Greek government spokesman, Simos Kedikoglou. ''It is very unlikely that Greece will take part.''

An official at the state-controlled channel said: ''It's not just that we don't have the money to pay for the broadcasting rights and participation fees which, at €120,000 ($A150,000), we simply don't have, at this juncture it would be morally wrong.''

In Cyprus, whose financial woes were triggered by its banking sector's exposure to Greece, the state broadcaster PIK described participation as a ''possibly provocative'' move.

Meanwhile, Poland issued a statement saying: ''After a very careful analysis, we made the difficult decision not to take part in the contest in Malmo.''

There are mutterings as to whether, after 58 years, the institution Europeans love to lampoon can survive - at least as a phenomenon that reflects Europe. Organisers point out that 38 countries have signed up for the event, which is the most-watched show on European TV.

But agents such as Yannis Koutrakis, beg to differ. ''You've got so many countries, like Azerbaijan and Georgia, that are not exactly European which are now participating,'' he said.

''If countries at the heart of Europe leave, then what is left? Is it really a European song contest?'' GUARDIAN